


Fire Investigation

by Ohms_Law



Series: COVER AU [1]
Category: Hololive, Virtual Streamer Animated Characters
Genre: AU, Action, Gen, Humor, Paramilitary AU, Time Shenanigans, secret agent AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 23:53:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29498376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ohms_Law/pseuds/Ohms_Law
Summary: Fresh out of training, Amelia Watson investigates reports of disappearances centered around a new fast-food chain. When she pushes too far, she ends up fighting for her life against a phoenix.
Series: COVER AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2172159
Comments: 8
Kudos: 38





	Fire Investigation

**Author's Note:**

> I've been writing for a long time, but this is the first time I've made something with the intent to share it. I probably never would have if not for the inspiration the holofic community has given me. I want to give special thanks to [aidyr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aidyr/) and [Zephyroh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zephyroh/) for encouraging me to finally take up my hobby again, even if they didn't know it.

As Amelia's entire body burned, she wondered how normal people managed. She pressed her back against a concrete pillar, the only cool surface nearby. As the blonde glanced down, she saw that her overcoat had caught fire along the edges. She ripped it off, glad that her undershirt was more resistant. 

"Watson? Watson, come in."

Amelia took in a shaky breath, mentally going through her resources. She had her custom revolver still in its holster. 6 rounds weren't that many, but she could stretch them into a lot more. There were 2 syringes strapped to her left leg for emergencies and 5 charges in the pocket watch just above it on her belt. In most situations, her equipment would be overkill. The burning overcoat on the floor made it clear this was not most situations. The detective was in serious danger and she wouldn't have it any other way.

It started simply enough. Rumors were circulating about a new Japanese fast-food chain called Kiara Fried Phoenix, or KFP. There were multiple reports of bad employees disappearing for weeks on end, only to come back as model workers. Additionally, KFP restaurants were 25 times as likely as other establishments to catch fire, and when they did, it tended to coincide with one of the aforementioned disappearances. It was a job for COVER's best agent. Unfortunately, Sora was busy (something about an Australian, Amelia wasn't paying much attention), so Watson was an acceptable backup. She had just finished her training and was clamoring for her first solo mission. As a detective and the world's leading mythobiology expert, it should have been a cakewalk. But the cake was a lie. 

Amelia had solved the first mystery rather quickly. A few interviews with the victims and their families made it obvious serious psychological reprogramming was involved. They wouldn't tell her where they went, but all she had to do was run her finger over a map and watch how they reacted. Lo and behold, everyone got nervous around the same spot.

That gave her an address in the Hokkaidō prefecture. It turned out, the address was for an office building that had been under construction until the company owning it went out of business. KFP had bought it up and didn't seem to have any plans for the plot. When Amelia arrived late at night to search the place, she had found what she expected: the half-made shell of an office complex. 

There were open squares in the walls every 5 feet or so, presumably for windows that never got added. The outer structure had been finished, but the inside was entirely converted. Foldable tables and plastic chairs were arranged like a school club had been forced to make a fast-food joint on short notice. The counter in the front was a line of cardboard boxes. The only reason Amelia thought it even was a counter was that it didn't make sense as anything else. There weren't even lightbulbs; someone had strung up Christmas lights along the walls. The first floor siphoned off into side rooms blocked with wooden boards that read "Not part of exam". At least, Amelia assumed that was what they said. Calling the handwriting chicken-scratch would be generous. 

There was a door to a stairwell on the left side, which had a sheet of paper taped to it. Amelia took one look at it and gave up. There was no way she was going to figure out what that read. 

A sudden noise made the detective jump. The crisp and clear howling had come from one of the side rooms. Anyone could tell it was the universal sound of having stubbed your toe, jammed your finger, or otherwise accidentally injured yourself. 

Her handler had insisted she take a subtle approach, but everything had been boring so far. She deserved at least a little excitement. In retrospect, she should've listened to her handler. 

"Waston, please respond!"

Think of the devil. 

"Watson here," Amelia finally said, reaching up to her earpiece. "Enemy contact made. Engaging threat." She could practically hear Enma's relief turn to shock and then rage.

"You were there for five minutes! How on earth are you fighting someone?!" Fighting was a rather generous interpretation of the current situation. An ant under a magnifying glass wasn't exactly fighting the sadistic child. 

Amelia shrugged before she remembered how earpieces worked. 

"There was a woman here. She lured me into one of the side rooms and locked me in. We had a nice chat too. I accused her of kidnapping people, she said she did, and the rest is history." History, of course, involving said woman (who she'd learned was named Kiara, like the restaurant) getting upset and insisting that the so-called "re-education" was harmless. Also a gratuitous amount of flirting. She wasn't quite sure how that had escalated to murder, but it wasn't the first time and hopefully wouldn't be the last.

Regardless, Amelia was locked in this new room, which was even less finished than the central one. A large concrete box with four pillars forming a smaller square within made the space into an oversized prison cell. The off-green metal door completed the look. 

The detective heard a faint sound as a drop of sweat burst on the ground. 

"Oh, right, I also think she's magic. There's some weird pyrokinesis stuff going on." There was an unforgiving wave of heat coming from the door, where her foe presumably was. Too much longer and Watson would be a puddle. 

"Retreat immediately Watson, we'll send a team later." Amelia actually laughed. 

"Are you kidding, I haven't had a good bit of fun in ages! She doesn't seem that dangerous. Besides, I've fought worse, and I haven't died yet."

The other end was silent for almost a dozen seconds. 

"Wow, I can actually hear you glaring!" Amelia said. "You need to teach me how to do that." There was a sigh, and Amelia knew she had to change tacts. "Enma, this is my first solo mission. If I can't do this, how am I supposed to show myself to my colleagues? To my seniors?"

"Watson..." The silence dragged on, until eventually: "Don't die Amelia." 

"YES!" she shouted, forgetting herself. "Oh, sorry. I'll be fine, I promise. Going quiet." Amelia tapped her earpiece, turning it off, as she broke out into a smile. Finally, finally, finally! She knew she could do this.

The detective focused on her surroundings. The pyro could simply stay outside doing her thing and she'd win. Amelia had to strike first, and she knew how. She stood with her gun drawn and waited for the inevitable. It did not disappoint. 

CRACK!

A gunshot rang out from the other side and Amelia immediately slammed herself into the door. There was almost no resistance as it swung open. A gust of wind was at her back as all the heat rushed out the new exit. Amelia caught her footing before she fell and took in the strange sight. 

The outer end of the doorknob had been blown off from the door. Its disfigured shape was still rolling along the ground. It bumped the prone form of Amelia's foe, who looked confused to see the detective. The pyrokinetic was supporting herself with her left hand, having just been knocked on her back. She wore a bright orange waitress's outfit. It was obviously homemade, and included, bizarrely enough, two hats. Amelia also noted the two strange devices attached to the costume, one on her hip and the other on her breast. They looked harmless, but so did a lot of her own gear. 

There was a momentary pause as both combatants realized where the other was and that they both knew they knew. In a third of a second, they both took in their opponent, acknowledged them as a skilled fighter, and decided not to pull punches. 

Amelia lowered her gun to point at the orange girl and immediately squeezed the trigger twice. At the same time, Kiara pushed off with her left hand, flinging herself out of the line of fire. Two half-inch craters were left behind by the bullets. While airborne, she thrust her arm forward and sent a sputter of fire towards the detective. In the same motion, she grabbed the pin on her chest. Amelia took a large step back to avoid the flame and shot two more bolts towards the now kneeling waitress.

Suddenly, Kiara's pin expanded into a large sword and shield. The bullets bounced off her shield like the detective was firing pellets instead of lead shells. The weapons were bright blue and orange, and were so blocky they looked like toys. However, when Kiara lunged forward, the force she swung her sword with would have been enough to cut a person clean through. Amelia was forced to take another desperate step back from the horizontal swipe and was wide open for the shield bash the followed. 

Amelia felt her ribs crack from the impact. Somewhere in her mind, she noted that her 3rd and 5th ribs were almost certainly broken. Another part of her relished the feeling; this was exhilarating! Some third, pragmatic part, followed her revolver and it spun out of her hand. The rest of her was occupied with the fact that the force had thrown her several feet back, into the center of the mock-restaurant. As she landed, she felt one of the plastic chairs break beneath her. She considered herself lucky it wasn't her spine. 

Kiara's rapid footsteps echoed as she ran to perform the coup de grace. Amelia was in too much pain to move, and so was helpless as the blade came down. From her position on the floor, she saw that the end of the blade itself was actually quite sharp. She also got a clear view of her attacker up close and personal for the first time. The swordswoman was beautiful, her hair flowing out behind her as she leaned down, putting her whole body into the motion. Piercing purple eyes made an engrossing contrast with the bright blue-green earrings and highlights. In that final moment, as Kiara loomed over her, all the different parts of Amelia coalesced into a single coherent thought. 

_ It looks like I really am a bottom. _

Two sharp cracks rang out almost simultaneously. The first was the unmistakable sound of Amelia's own revolver, from her right. The second was the redhead's neck snapping as the bullet connected with the side of her temple. The sheer force of the impact moved Kiara's whole body, thankfully stopping gravity from finishing her kill. The fresh corpse slumped over a foot away from where she'd been before.

The familiar voice of her savior greeted Amelia.

"I am so glad that wasn't my final thought. Rushia would never let me live it down." Amelia knelt over her own body. "Or unlive it, I suppose." 

She pulled a syringe from the leg of her broken self and stabbed it into the heart. Just as it had done for her, the formula took away the pain and started the slow process of healing. In a few hours, she would crash hard, but for now, it was what she needed. 

"Come on, you need to go back," Amelia said, helping herself up. "Two minutes should do it." The first Amelia nodded weakly, trying to regain her focus. The second Amelia shoved the first's revolver into her hands. 

"Ok, right, right." She shook her head, forcing herself back into the game. She ran behind the cardboard counter her double had popped out of and grabbed her pocket watch. She focused on two minutes ago when she was still locked in the heatsink and hit the button on the top. Amelia's body broke apart into tachyons and flung itself backward. She moved, not in any three-dimensional sense, but along the fourth dimension. From her perspective, there was no change at all. After she hit the button, she was simply elsewhen. 

The detective peeked over the counter and saw Kiara in front of the door she'd been trapped behind. Her eyes were closed as she leaned both palms against it. The door glowed slightly from the heat at the point of contact.

In hindsight, Amelia wished she had just shot the pyro then and there. Unfortunately, the plan she came up with inside the room required her to shoot the door open instead. If she changed her actions now... well she wasn't sure what would happen, but every expert she'd asked had said it would be disastrous. One of them had even fainted. 

Absentmindedly, Amelia aimed her revolver and squeezed the trigger. Her instincts always seemed to know what to do, so following them kept everything stable. This time was no different. The doorknob was blown off at the same time her past self ran at the door. Surprisingly, Kiara's head whipped around fast enough to catch a glimpse of the older detective before the door swung and knocked her over. 

Amelia huddled back down beneath the counter and waited. This part was always frustrating. She knew that there was a fight going on, but she couldn't join in. Instead, she had to twiddle her thumbs while badassery occurred around her. Still, time not fighting was time she could use to plan how to fight afterward. She would have to fight aftward, she was sure. The benefit of time to breathe had given her a significant revelation. 

The signs were all there. Her opponent was a pyrokinetic with obvious combat experience. She hadn't hesitated to kill the detective, so she'd probably offed people at least a few times before. Thinking back, she was pretty sure the redhead's earrings were actually growing out of her ear. The most significant clue was what had happened (or would happen, Amelia had long since accepted verb tenses weren't made for what she did) when she was shot. 

A loud crash signaled it was time to reexamine that evidence. Amelia waited a few seconds before standing up from behind the counter, gun ready. From the ground, it had felt like quite a while, but now she saw that Kiara wasted no time. Her downward stroke was a single, fluid motion that embodied years of practice. Amelia couldn't help but notice it also did interesting things to her figure. The redhead towering over the detective's past self, ready to pierce into her core, was an image she knew she would end up exploring later. 

She'd never get a chance to let her imagination run wild unless she saved herself now. Amelia squared her shoulders and fired, making sure to watch the consequences. As she remembered, the impact snapped Kiara's neck. Which, of course, made no sense. She'd shown the floor earlier how much power was behind each shot. Amelia's revolver was built by the Usada Kensetsu R&D team. The first version had been so powerful the recoil nearly took her hand off. The impact force was certainly enough to break someone's neck, but there shouldn't have been a head left to dislocate. Despite that, the bullet hadn't even broken Kiara's skin. 

Amelia got to jogged over to her past self and began administering treatment.

"I am so glad that wasn't my final thought. Rushia would never let me live it down. Or unlive it, I suppose." 

Seeing her past self was always a strange experience. Amelia could see the tension leave her body as the concoction blocked the pain. She saw the faint blush fade as she came down from the arousal of her near death. She saw herself register what she needed to do and shift from close-combat to long-term planning with only minor prodding from her future self. And she saw herself disappear, hurled through time to become the one who sees herself. 

Someone more philosophical could probably have achieved some sort of meaningful revelation from the experience. What Amelia did was self-reflection in a way no one else could know. Since Amelia was nowhere close to a philosopher, all she learned from it was that she looked really weird. 

Ignoring her own musings, the detective returned her attention to Kiara's corpse. Upon closer examination, she saw that it was glowing and just barely levitating off the ground. There wasn't any doubt: this girl was a phoenix. It was strange that she would work for a company that claimed to sell her own kind for food, but who was she to judge?

Amelia opened the cylinder of her now empty revolver. She reached for her pocket watch and grinned. This part was always cool. She focused on the chamber, remembering each round she'd fired. She shot one round into the doorknob, two into the floor, two that bounced off the shield, and one into the phoenix's head. Amelia clicked in her pocket watch and 6 mangled clumps of lead disappeared. At the same time, six bullets appeared in her revolver. They were, of course, the same bullets, but run backward in time as though they'd never been fired. Amelia reset the cylinder, readying her gun once more. 

Reloading like this used up a charge of her watch, but the rule of cool obligated her to. Besides, she still had three. She was fine. 

The detective was pulled out of her self-fellatio by a pained groan. Kiara was blinking, apparently done resurrecting.

"Cock-a-doodle-do birdbrain," Amelia said. "I hope you slept well." She then shot Kiara in the throat. The phoenix's skin was freakishly tough, but her insides clearly weren't. A direct impact like that would destroy her windpipe. 

Just as she expected, Kiara began choking for air. Having been dead for so long, there probably wasn't much oxygen in her body. She could vaguely twitch, but beyond that all she could do was gag. The most her efforts amounted to was knocking her hats off. The image reminded Amelia of an old man choking on his own vomit. 

It wasn't long before the twitching stopped and the glowing returned. The detective was relieved to see that the glow was brighter this time. If it had been the same, Amelia wasn't sure what she would have done. 

As part of her training, Amelia had gotten specialized instruction from several members of COVER. Shion's lessons, in particular, had been insightful for the detective. The magician's knowledge of magical principles had pushed the field of mythobiology forward immensely (mostly by proving it was even possible to study). The most key insight was the Rule of Three. As Shion explained, a spell can't just do the same thing over and over. Repetition introduces degradation, which causes errors. The second time the same spell triggered it would be more powerful and less controlled, and the third even more so, but three was the limit. By the fourth time a spell was so degraded it just failed. 

Amelia felt safe assuming that the brighter glow meant whatever magic was causing the resurrection operated on a similar principle. That meant that one or two more deaths would probably be final. If not, Amelia was more than willing to get some sunglasses and find out just how bright the firebird could be. 

Executing her like this was boring, but Amelia wasn't sure she could bring Kiara down again if she had to. Seeing the glow start to fade, she aimed her revolver. Idly fingering her watch, she tried to think of something witty to say.

That moment was the closest Amelia Watson would ever come to death until the day it finally took her.

There was a strange sound, just to the right of her head. Most people wouldn't recognize it, but Amelia knew it immediately. It was the sound of a weapon being swung faster than the air could move out of the way. Before she had fully processed what she was hearing, the detective clicked in her watch, jumping forward 10 seconds. If her hand hadn't already been there, she would've been decapitated.

When Amelia landed, she saw her assailant standing guard over Kiara. The  _ thing _ looked feminine, with a voluptuous figure and flowing pink hair. It wore a black dress that slit on the upper thigh. That was where the humanity ended. Above the dress, it wore a cloak that seemed to almost eat the light around it. It was framed by a scythe that curved so much like the crescent moon, the monster might as well have stolen it. And if the scythe was the stolen moon, then the veil it had over its head was where the moonlight went. Amelia had met angels, demons, and almost every other kind of creature under the sun, but nothing terrified her more than this. 

It spoke, it's voice like silk. 

"You are dead." That was it. No ambiguity, no uncertainty, no hope. Amelia was dead. In that moment, she believed it. No one could say something with that much certainty unless it was true. 

On some level, Amelia knew she had options. She could shoot it or use one of her remaining charges to time-travel away. There was also the backup concoction she had: anyone who didn't know how to deal with the effects would be practically immobilized. None of that would work. Her death was here and now. For the first time in her life, Amelia looked at danger not with joy, but horror.

And then a miracle happened. Admittedly, most miracles don't come in the form of .50 caliber antimaterial rounds, but when Watson heard the impact, she was willing to believe Matsuri worked in mysterious ways. 

The monster spun around, taking in the new circumstances. There was an impact next to Kiara's head, only an inch away. It was a clear message. 

Amelia took in a shuddering breath, only now remembering that was something she could even do. Her lioness savior spoke over the earpiece. 

"The next one's an Usada-grade AP round. Take the bird and go." Shishiro Botan, arguably COVER's best sniper, was here. Watson didn't know why and couldn't care less. If anyone could kill this thing it was Botan.

The shadow monster looked out the window into the distance. Despite the massive distance, Amelia knew it was looking right at Botan. 

"If you hurt the phoenix, you die. The blonde too. " 

Botan's voice wavered slightly, but she held firm. 

"I'm sure you can do that. What I'm not sure of is how many shots I can get off before you do, and I doubt you know either. Don't take the risk. Just walk away. If your relationship with the girl down there is anything like I think it is, she's worth more than killing either of us."

The wraith made a noise that no living thing could possibly make. From the movement of it's mouth, Amelia assumed it was equivalent to a hiss.

"You know nothing about me and her! How dare you -"

"I saw the look in your eyes when you were turning around. When you weren't sure if she was hurt. I know what that look means." Botan's voice softened. "Most people never get someone who cares about them like that. I don't want to take that away from her, from you."

There was a pause as it considered. Amelia realized that if the creature was talking to Botan, then it could either hear through Watson's earpiece or see so well it could read the sniper's lips. She didn't know which was worse. 

For the first time since the creature arrived, it blinked. 

"Okay." 

The lights flickered, and then they were gone. The phoenix and the monster simply vanished. Amelia's knees gave out and she fell onto all fours, panting. Over the earpiece, she heard Botan sigh and knew it was safe.

"What... the hell... was that?" Amelia asked, between breaths. 

Botan's reply was barely above a murmur, but it carried clear across the dead of night. 

"I have no idea."

* * *

Looking over the report she'd written, Amelia knew she was screwed. She had gone into a dangerous environment, against the instructions of her handler. Once she got there, she tried to kill a mythical creature, who was also their only source of information. All of that was bad enough, but in the process she'd almost died twice,  _ minimum _ . If she was lucky, she'd be stuck shadowing one of her seniors for months. At worst, she could be sent to work in R&D. Even seasoned members of COVER looked for shelter when they heard "peko" and Amelia did not want to learn why. 

The detective tucked her report under her arm and left the break room. None of that mattered since she didn't have a choice. If Amelia didn't turn in her report, her handler would extract it by force. There was nowhere on earth to hide from Enma. She'd tried. 

On the way to her handler's office, Amelia pondered why Enma wasn't on the field. All the rumors said she was extremely capable and she could definitely fight. Amelia could testify that her katana was not just for show. Maybe she stayed behind as part of a security team? After all, half the people here could probably bring the building down with enough effort. 

Was Watson on that list? She didn't have that much raw power, but her pocket watch gave her options in combat no one else had. Back at the construction site she had literally rescued herself. On reflection, what happened there wasn't really a good showing though. 

Unlike in movies, actual one-on-one combat rarely went longer than three minutes. It may have seemed like a back and forth, but Kiara was in control the entire time. In the space of thirty seconds, Amelia was disabled and set up for a killing blow. The only reason she wasn't dead was that lucky shot before the kill. 

During the fight, however, Amelia knew none of that. Everything she was centered around the deathmatch and how much she loved it. The image of the phoenix suffocating on the remains of her own throat while her tormentor planned one-liners would stay with the detective at night. If only it hadn't felt so good. 

Amelia had reached Enma's door a few minutes earlier but hovered outside it. There was no point stalling anymore. What was the worst that could happen? 

Enma could be so outraged that she would kill Amelia before she could react and make a Jackson Pollock painting with her innards. Enma certainly could do it. The only question was if she'd be mad enough to.

Amelia raised her hand to knock on the door, but before she could Enma called out. 

"Come in." Enma was a woman of many talents, but being dramatic was a specialty. 

Amelia opened the door, ready for an assault. Her manager was sitting at her desk, having swiveled around in her chair. Various papers were scattered across the desk, forgotten in favor of the intruder. Her head was resting on top of her hand, casual enough to look natural, but calculated so she could reach the blade on her back in an instant. 

"So... I have my report here," Amelia said nervously. The detective held up the paper and shuffled awkwardly. If she wanted to hand Enma the document, she'd need to get closer, but that would put her in katana range. Amelia tried to toss the paper, but instead, it floated to the other side of the room. 

Enma sighed and stood up. Instead of going to get the paper, she walked towards Watson.

"Before you kill me, I'm very very sorry and I promise that it won't happen again and I know that's what I said when you let me go solo but-". Enma hugged her tightly. 

"I'm so glad you're okay. I... I should have trusted you. I didn't, and I sent Botan, and now this is happening...".

Amelia stood there, stunned for a moment, before slowly returning Enma's hug. She nearly jumped when she heard Enma actually start to cry. 

"It's alright, I promise. As much as it pains me to admit it, you did the right thing by calling Botan. Because of her, no one got hurt. Hell, I tried to kill someone myself, and it didn't work." Enma stepped back. She wiped her eyes and seemed to collect herself. 

"You're right. That's all that matters. Everything else is secondary."

And there were the alarm bells again.

"Yeah, you mentioned that. What exactly is going on? I've been hurt worse than this on my squad missions." Enma looked slightly sheepish, suddenly fascinated by her shoes. Amelia was finding all kinds of new sides to her today.

"You know how I called Botan?" Amelia nodded. "She isn't technically under my jurisdiction. I actually used someone else's login to order her to you." Enma's speech sped up, becoming slightly flustered. "She was the only one nearby, so I didn't have a choice!"

Amelia broke into a slight grin as she realized what she'd misunderstood about Enma.

"Holy shit, she's a tsundere."

"What?"

"Nothing, talking to myself. So why does it matter that you did that? I'd have an easier time naming someone who hasn't gotten creative with the rules." Enma's previous gloom returned.

"Because of what I did, I'm in no position to be throwing my weight around. When I cleared you for solo missions, I made a deal with the higherups. They didn't want you anywhere without adult supervision-".

"I take offense to that." Enma raised an eyebrow. Amelia huffed, "I'm not saying it's wrong, just rude."

"Right. Well, I got them to agree to a wager. If this mission went well, you'd get full discretion in solo assignments. No more constant check-ins, no more logging your every move. I knew you wanted that, and I thought it'd work out."

Amelia knew how infamous some of her seniors were for their gambling. She wished she was surprised that she'd been sent out to settle a bet. 

"Well, that didn't happen," Amelia said. "What happens now?"

"Really, this shouldn't count. Everything that happened was far beyond the mission specifications. Botan herself said that she'd need a full squad before she met the phoenix's protector again. Extraordinary circumstances are inevitable in the field. I'd argue the fact you're even alive ought to get you a passing grade, but I'm in the dog house. So, we lost." 

Amelia groaned, resigning herself to her fate. 

"Please tell me I'm not going to R&D. I like my hair!" Enma shook her head.

"No, no, I wouldn't risk something like that. You're being put on A-team."

Amelia cocked her head to the side but jerked it back as she remembered Kiara's broken neck. Without the adrenaline high, it was quite a horrific image. 

"A-team? Isn't that a good thing?" Being called the A-team brought up images of the best of the best. Amelia was far from that, and it certainly couldn't be a punishment. 

"It means I'm not going to be handling you anymore," Enma explained. "The agents who work here are far too powerful to just be fired. Imagine the damage some of our more infamous members could do without supervision. This is the solution. The A-team is a squad that works directly under A-chan, the director's right hand. The idea is that if they can't be contained, then they should at least be sent places where making a mess won't hurt anything." Amelia's gaze turned cold.

"They're putting me on a suicide squad." 

"No, no, of course not. That name didn't make it through PR. It's more of a special tactics unit. Very special." Amelia's gaze iced over, before shattering into boiling frustration.

"Seriously?!? They might as well be putting me in the timeout corner! How am I supposed to work with an entirely new squad on such short notice?"

Enma nodded belatedly. 

"You're right, you might have a hard time adjusting, though not for the reason you think." Enma went back to her desk and returned with Amelia's reassignment documents. "As of five minutes ago, you're probably the most normal person on the squad." 

The detective snatched up the papers in a huff. She quickly scanned through them, as though her rage could change the contents within. Suddenly, her eyes stopped, locked on a particular word. 

"Marine. Houshou Marine is on the A-team." Enma nodded slowly, unsure of where this was going. 

Amelia began giggling. She picked up in speed, getting louder and more concerning by the second until Enma could almost see the warning not to feed after midnight. 

In hindsight, someone really should have expected the disaster that would follow. 

**Author's Note:**

> Looking at this story now, it bares very little resemblance to what I started with. Originally, the fight was going to be much, much longer. The Rule of Three was a setup for a three stage encounter, almost like a boss fight. Ultimately, I decided against it (obviously, since it isn't here). I kept the description of the Rule of Three in because I'd put a lot of background work into the now-abandoned magic system and it felt wrong to scrap all of it. I actually wrote most of round two before I realized it wasn't flowing very well. I absolutely love fight scenes, but more fighting for it's own sake can feel stale, and I didn't feel like I had enough surrounding it to justify the length. I replaced the second and third round with the character moment of Amelia's brutality. I wanted it to feel callous, but not malicious. I didn't want her to be puppy-kicking evil, but I wanted it to still be uncomfortable.
> 
> On the topic of Amelia, she also changed dramatically from my first draft. Originally, she was going to have a sharp Jeckel and Hyde type thing between her normal and war mode. When I actually sat down to write it though, it didn't work anywhere near the way I wanted it to. Instead, I gave her a battle mania that slowly takes over. I think I did a decent job showing the warped thought process as she fights, but it's something that would be easier through another character's perspective.
> 
> And on that topic (man, these segways really do roll), I would like to explore this setting further. The A-team is a great vehicle to through loads of different character combinations into different scenarios. One of my favorite parts of AUs is trying to adapt each character into the new setting. Even if I don't return to this setting, I will definitely be making other Hololive AUs. 
> 
> I also have a more traditional inamesame angst fic in the works, so expect that... eventually. I'm not committing to any sort of schedule here. 
> 
> Finally, I know my take on Enma as a tsundere isn't the normal interpretation, but our lovable tsundereaper isn't available for it in this setting, and I wanted some clear tsuning to fit the more upbeat tone of the ending.


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